This year, the Republican Party is staging an unprecedented, two-day midterm convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas this week. The convention seems likely to nationalize the midterm elections and tie the candidates directly to the unpopular president.
Also, demand for tickets doesn’t appear to be especially high.
According to the US Mirror, the Republican National Committee is “giving away front-row seats to entice guests to attend the pivotal midterm convention.” According to the report, donors to the party received a text message last week offering them a chance to enter a lottery to win a front-row seat. The convention has a $25,000 “attendance fee.”
The Republican Party is scrambling to give away free tickets to Trump’s midterm convention, in a frantic bid to pack the arena as countless GOP lawmakers and candidates stay away.
https://t.co/xRiOw2CRSe— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) September 7, 2026
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The convention also includes more traditional, Trump-associated fundraising schemes, including $250,000 for “a donor seat at a roundtable with the commander in chief,” and $88,600 for a commemorative photo.
Normal, election-year political conventions have delegates, who vote on the party’s nominee for president, but this convention does not; instead, it will have “honorary delegates.” That designation will cost $20,000 and also get a “Texas shirt and a cowboy hat.”
Donald Trump is set to speak both nights of the convention, with JD Vance headlining Wednesday night.
Politico had reported last week that “a POLITICO survey of more than 70 GOP candidates and members revealed that most either do not plan to attend or are still weighing whether to go.”
“I just felt I’d be more useful in my district,” Rep. Tom Barrett, who is running for re-election in Michigan, told Politico. “I travel a lot for this job and if I can be back home and see my family and do the job back home as well, then that’s sort of what I lean toward doing.”
“I can’t control what the president’s going to say at the convention, but I can control where I’m at, what I’m doing,” Barrett added.
One unnamed member of Congress expressed skepticism about the whole enterprise to Politico.
“You shouldn’t be having to rally your base at this point,” the member said. “You should be trying to convince independents. Independents are not attending nor watching the midterm convention.”
Photo courtesy of an X screenshot.
